Best doctoral thesis in the field Terrorism and Counterterrorism Studies written in 2014

by the Terrorism Research Initiative

In order to stimulate the search for excellence in academic research, TRI has created an annual award for the Best PhD Thesis on Terrorism and Counterterrorism that has been successfully defended at a university. For this purpose, a panel of judges consisting of the three directors of TRI – Robert Wesley, Alex P. Schmid and James J. F. Forest – now invite those who have completed their PhD thesis between January and December 2014 to submit a copy to the panel no later than 31 March 2015. The judges will read and compare the doctoral theses we receive and nominate the finest submission for the award ‘Best doctoral thesis in the field Terrorism and Counterterrorism Studies written in 2014’.

The Award consists of a monetary prize of US $1,000.- and a formal certificate, signed by the panel of judges, declaring the winner’s name and the title of the thesis. The award winner will be announced, and a summary of the thesis will be published in the August 2015 issue of Perspectives on Terrorism. The Terrorism Research Initiative will also assist the award winner in finding a publisher for his or her thesis so that the full results of the award-winning research become available to the scholarly community with minimal delay. The August 2015 issue of the journal will also announce the honorable mention of authors whose theses were judged second and third best.

Eligible for this annual award are scholars who have obtained their PhD degree in the calendar year 2014 from an institution of higher education anywhere in the world. The thesis must be submitted in English (either written in English or translated into English) and should be sent to the chair of the judges panel in electronic form as a PDF. The PhD thesis must focus on terrorism/counterterrorism or closely related forms of political violence and armed conflict. It should be the product of in-depth research and show originality in terms of introducing new methods, theories or data into its analysis. The submitted thesis should be accompanied by a cover letter in which the author outlines the novelty and/or uniqueness of the thesis and its findings.

In those cases where a member of the jury is in any way connected to a person submitting a PhD thesis, the composition of the jury will be changed to avoid a conflict of interest. In such cases, a qualified scholar from the Editorial Board of Perspectives on Terrorism will be invited to take his place.

The judges are looking forward to receiving and reviewing quality submissions for this award before 31 March 2015. Submissions should be sent to the chair of the panel of judges, Prof. em. Alex P. Schmid, at apschmid@terrorismanalysts.com